Poll commission head dismissed
The Jakarta Post, Medan/Jayapura
The head of a regental general elections commission has been dismissed for allegedly breaching the commission's code of ethics, local poll officials say, while more protests marred the inauguration of new councillors on Thursday.
The officials said Abdul Aziz was removed as Mandailing Natal (Madina) General Elections Commission chairman on the recommendation of a plenary session of the Madina commission.
North Sumatra General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Irham Buana Nasution said his office had decided that only 32 of the 35 elected legislative candidates would be installed as new councillors in Madina.
However, Aziz had discretely proposed to North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin that all 35 elected councillors be sworn in on Thursday, without the knowledge of the four Madina General Elections Commission members, Irham added.
"Although only 32 elected candidates were inaugurated, lack of communication on the part of Abdul Aziz, who brought forward three other names that had been excluded from the list, prompted the four members of the Madina poll commission to convene for a plenary session and decide to dismiss him," Irham said.
The Aug. 30 meeting also recommended that Aziz be replaced by another member Fahrizal Efendi. "We were notified of the decision, as was the central General Elections Commission (KPU) in Jakarta," Irham added.
He said the three elected members -- one from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and two others from the Golkar Party -- could not be sworn in, as it had been proven that they used fake school diplomas to qualify for the election.
Irham defended the decision to fire Aziz, saying it was in compliance with Law No. 12/2003 on elections.
Meanwhile, dozens of students staged a protest as all 30 new members of Papua's Jayapura legislative council were installed on Thursday.
They urged the new councillors to sign a "political contract", under which the new members pledged to avoid corruption, side with the people, respect the supremacy of the law and uphold human rights (particularly women's and children's) as well as seek to raise the education budget by 20 percent.
However, only five of the 30 councillors were willing to sign the contract. "The people want the contract to be signed, and it will not disadvantage us, so I signed it," said councillor Ichwanul Musimin of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
A similar contract was proposed on Thursday by a number of non-governmental organizations in Central Java, ahead of the swearing in of new councillors on Friday.
Eko Junianto, coordinator of the NGOs, was quoted by Antara as saying in Semarang that the new council members should sign the so-termed Central Java People's Charter" to discourage corruption such as that which marred the terms of their predecessors.
"This charter is for the people of Central Java. We will distribute copies of it to local bureaucrats, NGOs and other civil society members, so as to jointly assume control," he added.